Lunchpower means healthier meals for Minnesota kids

Food and Nutrition, August, 1993 by Mary Jane Getlinger

The American "power lunch" may be big in the business world, but for Minnesota schoolchildren LUNCHPOWER is becoming the way to "do" lunch.

LUNCHPOWER is the name of a Minnesota project that's designed to help schools serve lunches that are lower in fat and sodium.

What gives LUNCHPOWER its punch is a set of carerfully developed recipes that modifies the way schools prepare children's favorites and goes on from there.

"LUNCHPOWER starts with menu items students know and like, such as pizza, hot dogs, and Italian dunkers (bread dipped in meat sauce)," says Susan Rueberg, nutritionist for the Minnesota Department of Education, which Department of Education, which administers the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in the state.

Originally pilot-tested in four school districts and now being expanded to NSLP schools statewide, the project is also aimed at helping children become accustomed to making healthy food choices.

Helping children by helping schools

Concern about children's health was what inspired Minnesota health professionals, nutritionists, and education officials to begin working together 5 years ago on the project that evolved into LUNCHPOWER.

"We know that eating habits developed during childhood can influence lifetime practices," says Patricia Snyder of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health. "And studies show that dietary patterns affect the development of cardiovascular and other major chronic diseases. Dietary modification can reduce such risks."

With more than 460,000 school lunch customers daily in Minnesota, Snyder says it was clear that modifying school meals would be an excellent way to reach large numbers of children and have a long-term impact on their health.

Worked together to set goals

Representatives from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, the Minnesota Department of Education, the American Heart Association Minnesota Affiliate, and the Minnesota Beef Council and other industry worked together on the project.

Their goal was to come up with a monthly school lunch menu that would average no more than 30 percent of calories from fat. They began by establishing criteria for maximum levels of fat and sodium. And, to make sure meals would provide adequate amounts of energy, they also established calorie requirements.

For the pilot test, they set a goal of having lunches average--over a 1-month period--no more than 22 grams of fat and 1,000 milligrams of sodium per day. The calorie goal was 550-800 calories per lunch.

The group's decision to focus on reducing rat and sodium in consistent withe the Dietary Guidelines for Americans--developed jointly by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services--and with the improvements in nutritional quality USDA is encouraging NSLP schools to make nationwide.

Recipes collected, modified, and tested

Translating LUNCHPOWER goals into action involved several steps, including:

* modifying school lunch recipes and testing them with students;

* identifying low-fat, low-sodium food products, including products schools purchase from vendors as well as those schools receive free through USDA's commodity distribution program;

* and devising a plan to integrate these recipes and products into school lunch programs.

Working together to do this were staff from the Minnesota's Department of Education's child nutrition section; food and nutrition specialists from the University of Minnesota School of Public Health; and food service directors of four diverse school districts--one rural, one small city, and two suburban.

"The food service directors worked with their cook managers to collect recipes currently being used in the lunch program," says Snyder. "Then, using the microcomputer-based Minnesota Nutrient Data System, the Nutrition Coordinating Center of the University of Minnesota did a computer analysis of 153 school lunch recipes for fat, sodium, and calories."

In each school district, food service directors identified recipes that exceeded the nutrientt criteria for fat and sodium, and worked with dietitians and cook managers to analyze and modify them.

"We tapped everyone's expertise to get ideas for modifications," says Snyder. "That's what made it successful. Health professionals looked at one aspect, cook managers knew how changes would affect preparation, and food service directors looked at costs."

The modified school lunch recipes were taste-tested by groups of students, food service staff, and teachers, and 75 were adopted for use in LUNCHPOWER menus.

Team look at food products

An important part of the evaluation group's work was looking at food products. Project coordinators asked manufacturers to provide nutrient information on the amount of fat, sodium, and calories for approximately 200 school food products.

Although they also asked for specifies on the amount of saturated fat and cholesterol, this information was often not available.

"We believe as more and more schools request nutrient information, vendors will make it available," says Rudberg. "In fact," she adds, "we had some vendors whose products we did not list call and voluntarily give nutrient data."